Jared Huffman rips Ro Khanna bid in South Bay

Freshman Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, had some unkind things to say Wednesday about Ro Khanna’s challenge to incumbent Rep. Mike Honda in the South Bay.

In an interview, Huffman, who won his North Bay district after Rep. Lynn Woolsey retired, said he found Khanna’s challenge “troubling.”

“You already get the sense that that burn rate from a huge team of consultants and all of the fundraising firepower, millions of dollars that Democrats need around the country to win races and take back the House, are instead going to be diverted to an intramural fight between Democrats,” Huffman said. “For no real reason. Mike Honda is a great member of Congress.”

Comrade Marinucci has been closely tracking the Silicon Valley Dem-on-Dem race, already hot even with the election nearly two years out. Marinucci noted on MOnday that Khanna’s executive committee is “full of some superstar Obama presidential campaign insiders on the fundraising, tech and Asian outreach front” posing a real threat to Honda.

All made possible by California’s new top-two primary, which allows intra-party challenges to incumbents that were impossible under the old party primaries. See poster child Eric Swalwell’s toppling of veteran Pete Stark last year in the East Bay. Bay Area Democrats, from House minority leader Nancy Pelosi on down, circled the wagons around Stark, to no avail.

Huffman said he was dismayed that “this expensive battle is even going to take place.” He said he had no idea how much it would cost but, “obviously we’re talking millions of dollars and those dollars really could make a difference in unseating Republicans in seats that we hope to take away. I think that’s probably going to cost Mr. Khanna among Democrats who understand that context.”